WAVE – An Intelligent & Interactive Presentation System

Abstract

We all have witnessed the leaps and bounds that the technology has took in the past three decades. From the transformation of a once huge machine called “Computer” into “PC” to the technological marvel known today as the “Smartphone”, the world has come a long way from what it used to be back before the 80s. But did we stop to think that with every advancement, we are individually bound to individual tech gadgets, without which we feel kind of empty? Every gadget that we have taken for granted? It’s time for that to change. Our Final Year Project is focused on the interaction with the technology without the individual burden of separate devices. Our system, we believe, will forever change the course of how people around the world deliver their presentations, whether they are business personnel, tech directors or students. The system that we had the vision to build is Wave. It will be a gesture based presentation system using Microsoft Kinect™ as its base technology. Now before jumping into technical detail, first let us put things into perspective. Firstly, a presenter needs either a partner before the PC running the presentation, or a button slider if he/she him/herself wants to control the presentation, or has nothing but just the keyboard to which he/she comes back and forth to change slides. Secondly, if he/she wants to highlight or write something on the presentation, he/she either has the option of an expensive gadget like the Wacom tablets or the trusty old mouse, which is awkward to use for writing purposes. Our question: Why all the hassle in delivering a simple presentation? Wave answers precisely that question. Since it will be utilizing Microsoft Kinect, it would not require any additional gadget for interaction, rather the presenter himself/herself will be the controller of the presentation, and will be able to control it either using motion gestures, on-screen controls or voice commands and with our two proprietary technologies: AirWrite™ and AirDraw™, the presenter will be able to write anything on the ongoing slide just by writing in the air. Furthermore, To cater for the presenter’s movement, Picture-in-Picture (PiP) View would be utilized which will keep the presenter informed in real-time about his/her position on the stage so that he/she remains in Wave’s focus for the duration of the presentation.